The field of the present invention relates to an automated verification system and more specifically to a bar coded system of verification for filling pharmacy prescriptions.
FIG. 1 depicts a flow diagram of a typical physician-to-pharmacy prescription system. The physician makes the diagnosis (step 10) and then writes out a prescription (step 12) which the patient takes to the pharmacy (step 14). The pharmacist interprets the physician's prescription (step 16) and then selects the drug from the shelf container containing the appropriate drug (step 18), fills the vial with the appropriate quantity of the drug and labels the vial (step 20). The pharmacist completes the transaction by counseling the patient (step 22). Two steps in this system are prone to errors that are correctable by an automated verification system. First, the step in which the pharmacist interprets the prescription (step 16) requires the pharmacist to correctly render the hand-written directions of the doctor. This step may be prone to error because of the element of human error when reading the doctor's hand-written prescription. Moreover, doctors may write somewhat illegibly, thereby increasing the possibility of a mis-read. A second step prone to error is when the pharmacist picks drug from inventory on the pharmacy shelf that matches the prescription (step 18). After the prescription from the doctor is rendered, the corresponding drug is located from the inventory in the pharmacy to fill the prescription. If both the rendering of the doctors intended drug and the subsequent selection of that drug from the pharmacy inventory are performed correctly, the physician-to-pharmacy prescription system has functioned properly.
Electronic prescription transmission from the doctor's office to the pharmacies is now being worked on by a consortium of drug stores, pharmacy software suppliers, and other pharmacy industry parties, however, these systems do not verify the match between the doctor's prescription and the drug selected from the pharmacy's inventory to fill the prescription and the filled prescription container handed to the customer.